The local area network (LAN) has undergone dramatic changes over these years. As the need for high-quality streaming media, e-commerce and entertainment applications over network increases rapidly, massive demand for network bandwidth will require new efficient ways of transmitting traffic in the future. Moreover, a recent investigation from UUNET, an Internet backbone provider, indicates that Internet usage is doubling every 3.6 months. With this surging demand for data, LAN managers have to evaluate and adopt new technologies.

To meet the bandwidth demand for more network data, the IEEE Gigabit Ethernet Committee (IEEE802.3z) established the Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) standard in June of 1998. The Gigabit Ethernet standard allows Gigabit Ethernet LANs to transmit data at 1,000 megabits per second (Mbps), which runs ten times faster than conventional 10/100BASE-T Ethernet connections.

The Gigabit Ethernet LAN solutions can be applied wherever Fast Ethernet works. It is a simple, cost-effective investment that can easily and quickly relieve bottlenecks of network connections.

Comparison Chart of Different Ethernet Solutions.

Ethernet Solution	10BASE-T	100BASE-T	1000BASE-T
Ethernet Protocol	802.3i	802.3y	802.3z
Data Transfer Rate	10Mbps	100Mbps	1000Mbps
Max. Distance	100Meters	100Meters	100Meters
Media	UTP (Untwisted Pair) CAT. 3/4/5	UTP CAT. 3/4/5	UTP CAT.5  4Pairs
Cabling	Star	Star	Star

Benefits of deploying Gigabit Ethernet:

Save more time: Gigabit Ethernet LAN allows users waiting less time on the network and being more productive. Additionally, since Gigabit Ethernet is developed from the Fast Ethernet standards, which are the most common used networking protocols, network managers will find the new GbE protocol very familiar.

Save more money: Gigabit Ethernet LAN over copper connectivity costs less to maintain than optical fiber cables. You can skyrocket network performance with Gigabit over your existing Cat-5 cabling infrastructure.

More reliability: The Reliability of Gigabit Ethernet is proven from testing that has shown the 1000BASE-T bit-error-rate to be less than one in 10 billion.